1. In 1839, the Cherokee Nation was forcibly removed from their homeland in Alabama and marched on the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

2. In 1861, the Alabama Secession Convention voted to withdraw from the United States and join the Confederate States of America, kicking off the Civil War.

3. In 1901, Alabama governor William D. Jelks was sworn into office, beginning his two-term tenure as governor.

4. In 1926, Robert E. Lee "Pig Iron" Howell, a baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves, was born in Atmore, Alabama.

5. In 1989, civil rights activist and Alabama native Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.